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Jo Stafford

Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917–July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop music singer and occasional actress, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical training to become an opera singer before following a career in popular music, and by 1955 had achieved more worldwide record sales than any other female artist. Her 1952 song "You Belong to Me" topped the charts in the United States and United Kingdom, the record becoming the first by a female artist to reach number one on the U.K. Singles Chart.

Born in Coalinga, California, Stafford made her first musical appearance at age twelve. While still at high school she joined her two older sisters to form a vocal trio named The Stafford Sisters, who enjoyed moderate success on radio and in film. In 1938, while the sisters were part of the cast of Twentieth Century Fox's production of Alexander's Ragtime Band, Stafford met the future members of The Pied Pipers and became the group's lead singer. Bandleader Tommy Dorsey hired them in 1939 to perform back-up vocals for his orchestra.

List of Jo Stafford compilation albums (2010–present)

The following is a list of compilation albums of songs recorded by U.S. singer Jo Stafford that have been released since 2010. They include material from her solo career, and recordings she made with artists such as Gordon MacRae, as well as her foray into comedy with husband Paul Weston as New Jersey lounge act Jonathan and Darlene Edwards.

Beyond the Stars: Key Recordings 1940-1959

Beyond the Stars: Key Recordings 1940-1959 is a compilation of songs recorded by Jo Stafford. The album includes over 100 songs recorded by Stafford during the 1940s and 1950s, from her time with The Pied Pipers through to her later solo career. The album was released on the JSP label on July 13, 2010.

The Best of Jo Stafford

The Best of Jo Stafford is a 2010 compilation album of songs recorded by Jo Stafford. It was released by The Fuel Label Group on July 20, 2010 and contains 23 songs by Stafford.

History

Stafford means 'ford' by a 'staithe' (landing place). The original settlement was on dry sand and gravel peninsula that provided a strategic crossing point in the marshy valley of the River Sow, a tributary of the River Trent. There is still a large area of marshland northwest of the town, which has always been subject to flooding, such as in 1947, 2000 and 2007.

It is thought Stafford was founded in about 700 AD by a Mercian prince called Bertelin who, according to legend, established a hermitage on the peninsula named Betheney or Bethnei. Until recently it was thought that the remains of a wooden preaching cross from this time had been found under the remains of St Bertelin's chapel, next to the later collegiate Church of St Mary in the centre of the town. Recent re-examination of the evidence shows this was a misinterpretation – it was a tree trunk coffin placed centrally in the first, timber, chapel at around the time Æthelflæd founded the burh, in 913 AD. The tree trunk coffin may have been placed there as an object of commemoration or veneration of St Bertelin.

HM Prison Stafford

History

Stafford Prison was built on its current site in 1793, and has been in almost continuous use, save a period between 1916 and 1939. It held Irish Internees taken by the British after the 1916 Easter Rising from May. They were released Christmas 1916.

Among its earlier prisoners was George Smith who served several sentences for theft there but began his later work as a hangman while a prisoner, assisting William Calcraft. He officiated at several executions in the prison later in his life, notably that of poisoner William Palmer in 1866.

In November 1998, an inspection report from Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons heavily criticised security at Stafford Prison, after it emerged that inmates were being supplied with drugs flown in on paper planes. Inmates were fashioning strips of paper into planes, then attaching lines to them and flying them over the 19-foot (5.8-metre) perimeter wall. The lines were then used to pull packages containing drugs and other banned substances back over the wall. The prison was also criticised for being overcrowded, under-resourced, and failing to prepare prisoners for release.